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Who's Who - Ion IC Bratianu

Ion IC Bratianu (1864-1927), born on 20
August 1864 in Florica in Romania, was six times prime minister of Romania -
1909, 1910-11, 1914-18, 1918-19, 1922-26, 1927 - and succeeded his father
(of the same name) as leader of the Liberal party.

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Bratianu served in 1907 as
Minister of the Interior before assuming leadership of the Liberals and
thereafter acting as prime minister. His first two terms as prime
minister saw Bratianu champion Romanian land reform in addition to arguing
the case for the establishment of a Greater Romania.

Bratianu's
period as premier saw Romania take part in two notable conflicts.
Having sat out the First Balkan War (1912-13) as a neutral, Romania joined
Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Turkey ranged against Bulgaria in the Second
Balkan War (1913). The Treaty of Bucharest (1913) brought an end to
this conflict, although the much larger Great War was shortly to follow.
Under the provisions of the Treaty of Bucharest Southern Dobrudja became
part of Romania.

With the
outbreak of World War One in August 1914 Romania declared initially as a
neutral. However Romania entered the conflict on the side of the
Allies in August 1916 by
declaring war on Austria-Hungary, with the Allies
promising support for the accomplishment of Bratniau's cherished Greater
Romanian ideal (i.e. the union of the old Regat (Moldavia and Walachia) with
the Romanian lands of the Habsburg and Ottoman empires).

After
initial successes the Romanian army, under the combined pressure of the
Transylvanian armies of
Falkenhayn and
Bulgarian forces (commanded by
Mackensen), was
forced to abandon parts of the country - including Bucharest - and withdraw
to Moldavia.

The
summer of 1917 saw a number of significant Romanian battles: at Marasti,
Marasesti and Oituz; which as a consequence obliged the
Central Powers to
abort their attempt to defeat Romania outright by occupying the remainder of
her territory, thereby forcing her out of the war.

Nevertheless Romania was driven to a settlement with the Central Powers with
the decision of the Russians - following the Bolshevik revolution - to
conclude a separate peace at
Brest-Litovsk. With the end of Russian operations on the Eastern
Front the Romanians were left to fight the Moldavian front single-handed, a
patently impossible task.

Cut off
from its western allies Romania agreed an armistice with the Central Powers,
culminating in the
Treaty
of Bucharest of May 1918. Romania never formally ratified the
treaty, finally denouncing it in October 1918 as a prelude to re-entering
the war with the Allies. The terms of the Allied-German armistice saw
the Treaty of Bucharest formally revoked (along with the Russian Treaty of
Brest-Litovsk).

Having
resigned as premier in February 1918 Bratianu was recalled to office in
December that year to lead Romania's negotiations at
the Paris Peace Conference,
where he consistently championed the Greater Romania ideal. Bratianu
again resigned in September 1919 rather than comprise on disputed territory
with Yugoslavia.

Serving
again as prime minister from 1992-26 Bratianu was responsible for the
adoption of a new Romanian constitution and agrarian reform. In June
1927 Bratianu presided over a final, short-lived, government.